Alberto Hurtado - Social Apostolate

Social Apostolate

In 1940, he was appointed diocesan director of the Catholic Action youth movement and the very next year, its national director (1941–1944). That same year, in 1941, Hurtado's sociology-oriented mind led to his authoring of the book Is Chile a Catholic Country? The book published statistics revealing a lack of priests assigned to the working class and rural populations, including detailing parishes that had 10,000 laypeople assigned for one priest covering huge geographic areas. His solution was to increase and better educate the clergy, however, this never came to be. Almost half of Chile's clergy were foreigners (including missionaries from the United States and Canada) who did circuits of towns administering the sacraments (i.e., going to one town one week, then another the next week, etc.) Most Chileans regarded devotion to the Virgin and the saints as more important than attending Mass or consuming the Eucharist, which they could not do regularly.

In the book he published the results of a 1939 survey of Chilean religious practices and found that only 9% of Chilean women and 3.5% of Chilean men regularly attended Mass (leaving over 90% as not regularly practicing). Revealing a few shocking realities as it was, the book raised a storm among conservative Catholics in Chile (including the hierarchy), who even accused him of being a Communist.

Keeping in mind his own origins, and ever grateful for the help he (and his family) had received when they were in great difficulties, Hurtado was led to active social involvement. His strong faith was transformed into action with his founding of an organization similar to Boys Town in the United States. His shelters, called Hogar de Cristo (Home of Christ), took in all children in need of food and shelter, abandoned or not. He also purchased a 1946 green pickup truck and monitored the streets at night to help those in need that he could reach. His own charisma brought him many collaborators and benefactors; the movement was a huge success. The shelters multiplied all over the country. It is estimated that between 1945 and 1951 more than 850,000 children received some help from the movement.